Fallout 3 Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

As you head north, expect to run into your normal batch of Wasteland enemies. Radscorpions, Vicious Dogs, and others will be giving you a hard time, but our voyage northward was unexpectedly quiet for the most part (naturally, this might differ for you). Ultimately, after going through several rocky outcrops and areas that were clearly once wooded, you'll see what appears to be a shack in the distance, with an old RV next to it. Explore the small shack to find foodstuffs and ammunition -- Sugar Bombs, Salisbury Steaks, and more, with some 10mm Ammo, 5.56mm Ammo and others thrown in the mix. Then, approach the path to the wooden door that leads into a cavern, which is to the right of the shack. Welcome to Lamplight Caverns.

At this point, many gamers are going to have to defer to the Rescue From Paradise quest/side quest. We call it both a quest and a side quest because the mayor of Lamplight Caverns may deny you access. If he does, then Rescue From Paradise is a mandatory quest in order to gain entrance. If the mayor lets you in, however, Rescue From Paradise goes from mandatory to optional. Keep that in mind going forward!

Head forward down the dank cavern until a young man, the mayor of Little Lamplight, intercepts you. As the note above states, he might deny you access outright if you can't convince him you're a good adult (known to these kids as mungo). If you can't convince him, you'll have to come back after doing the Rescue From Paradise quest. But if he lets you in, you can begin to talk to him at length about the Little Lamplight settlement. You'll learn that this is a settlement comprised entirely of children. When these children come of age, they are kicked out of the settlement and are forced to go to another settlement known as Big Town, which you may or may not have been before.

You've likely noticed by now that you can't draw a weapon here, so there' snot gunning your way through. I guess Bethesda had to draw the line somewhere, and that somewhere is that you can't kill children in Fallout 3. So, you'll need to speak to everyone and let your vocals do the talking as opposed to your gun (which will fit many gamers' styles, anyway). The children in Little Lamplight have a remarkable society built up around them. Each of them serves a purpose, has a job in the small society, and generally take care of one another. Make sure to explore the cavernous settlement at length in order to find everyone and speak to everyone. But in general, you'll want to keep your hands to yourself and not steal their stuff. In fact, there's little of real value here anyway, so let's cut to the chase, shall we?

We're not here to chill with the residents of Little Lamplight. We're here to use them to get into Vault 87, so that our main quest can continue. You have two ways of getting to Vault 87, and we only cover one of them here -- the much simpler, easier path. To successfully get to Vault 87 this way, you need to have an average hacking skill. If you don't, speak to the mayor and gain access to a route called Murder Pass, which you will need to traverse in order to get to Vault 87. But if you have an average hacking skill, which you should by this point in the game, then you can seek out the oldest resident of Little Lamplight, a kid named Joseph. When you find him and speak with him (he's usually in the huge cavern at the back of the settlement), pick his brain about the door to Vault 87.

When you do, Joseph will agree to lead you to a computer so that you can try to open the door it's attached to. This is where your hacking skill comes into play. Follow him as he runs to the computer (he'll stop multiple times en route to make sure you're still with him, so speak with him to get him running towards the destination again). When you get there, examine the computer and hack it as you've hacked so many computers before. Then, use the now-unlocked computer to open the door adjacent to you and go through it. This is the entrance of Vault 87. Congratulations! We can now proceed with our mission.